Selling your Property in a Difficult Market

If you listen to the media hype, you're probably thinking that you need to hold onto your home until the economy bounces back; that you'll never offload your house in this market. While it's true that sellers in some regions are finding it tough to sell right now, there are still buyers out there looking for a home.

The first step you need to take to ensure a successful sale of your home is to hire a reputable listing agent. While many people try the For Sale by Owner route first, most discover that selling a home is time consuming, complicated, and requires more specialized knowledge than they have.

Many homeowners who try to sell their home on their own become overwhelmed with trying to market their property to buyers. After all, it takes more than a yard sign and a couple of balloons to attract large numbers of viable buyers.

A good real estate agent will organize and host open houses for you, taking care of the scheduling, showing buyers around, and answering their questions. For these events, they will likely create professional brochures or fliers that feature the listing details of your home, as well as highlight the property's best features. This gives buyers something to bring home with them, and will make a positive impression.

In addition to traditional marketing methods like open houses, today's agents will also develop a solid advertising campaign for the internet. With over 80% of buyers starting their home search on the web, listing your home on the Multiple Listing Service and on other reputable websites is an important step in getting your home noticed. Thousands of agents and potential buyers will be able to access details and photos of your home from the comfort of their living room.

Having a web savvy agent is absolutely vital in this market, but you also want an agent who has been in the industry for a few years-particularly one who has experienced the ups and downs of the housing market. He or she will be able to provide insight and practical advice about how best to go about getting your home sold in a difficult market.

With your listing price set and marketing campaigns in place, a realtor will also help you negotiate with buyers to get the best price possible. Agents are trained and skilled in the art of negotiation, and will make the entire transaction much smoother for everyone.

Successful sales are possible even in slow markets like this one, but it's important to have an ally with know-how to guide you along the way.

Do not forget about seller financing with a mortgage note. We can help you with selling a mortgage note or creating one to take back financing. 

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Tips on Cutting Your Business Taxes

As the calendar turns to another year, it's time to get 2008 tax information in order. Taking advantage of all opportunities can reduce the burden. Here are some opportunities, courtesy of the Internal Revenue Service, that are not widely known. If they don.t apply to your 2008 returns, this is a good time to consider them for the new year. In hiring, consider taking advantage of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit.

This was designed to provide an incentive to hire from certain groups with particularly high unemployment rates, including urban youths, government assistance recipients, ex-convicts, veterans and vocational rehabilitation referrals. The credit has been extended a number of time. Now it's combined with the welfare to work tax credit and extended through August 31, 2001. The combined credit is available for employers hiring from one or more of nine targeted groups. Depending on the group and circumstances, the maximum credit per employee ranges from $1,200 for qualified summer youth employees to $5,000 for long term family assistance recipients. If you own real estate, you might benefit from cost segregation.

Real estate holdings represent a significant capital investment. Cost segregation carves out shorter lived assets, which qualify for five, seven and 15 year write off periods, normally embedded in a building's construction or acquisition cost, and thus depreciated over 38 years. Reclassifying assets and accelerating depreciation could bring tax savings and easier write offs when items become obsolete. Reclassifying assets is most effective for property valued at $1 million or more. For retailers that are considering buying equipment, enhanced Section 179 may help. The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 has two incentives for business that purchase, tangible personal property, for use in the business. The first enhancement Section 179 is expensing.

For property placed in use during the 2008 tax year, business can deduct up to $250,000. the deduction begins to phase out if the business spends more that $800,000. Before the Act, the Section 179 expense limit was up to $238,000, with a phase out beginning at $510,000. What property qualifies? Generally, the property must be newly purchased tangible personal property, actively used in the business and for which a depreciation deduction would be allowed. It must be used more than 50 percent for business.

Bonus depreciation is back, offering another incentive to purchase equipment. It is the second incentive in the Economic Stimulus Act. This incentive was used after 9/11 and after the gulf cost hurricanes, to encourage businesses to invest. The new law provides qualifying taxpayers 50 percent first year bonus depreciation of the adjusted basis of qualifying property.

To claim bonus depreciation, the assets must be new, qualified property put into service after December 31, 2007. Qualified property must be: "Property with a depreciation recovery period of 20 years or less." "Depreciable computer software that is not amortizable over 15 years." "Water utility property." "Qualified leashold improvement property." If purchasing equipment isn't practical, there are tax advantages to leasing. If you lease your equipment, you are allowed a full write off of lease expenses each year, no matter the size of your business or the dollar value of the leases.

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